Challenge Extension Given To Fight Child Porn Charges

A 72-year-old man accused of downloading and scanning photos of underage children onto his computer received an extension to challenge grand jury proceedings last week.

On Oct. 7, a grand jury indicted the man on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after police originally arrested the man Oct. 5 on three counts of the same charge.

It is the Roundup’s policy not to name victims or suspects in sex crimes. Suspects will be identified after a conviction.

Police arrested the man Oct. 5 after a computer technician reportedly uncovered several images of underage girls on the man’s computer while trying get rid of viruses on the machine.

On Oct. 13, the man was arraigned in a Gila County courtroom and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Several weeks after the man posted bail, the man’s attorney, Elizabeth Flynn, requested an extension to challenge the grand jury proceedings. On Nov. 2, she requested automatic disclosure and on Nov. 9 she requested additional discovery into the case.

Details of a plea agreement are not yet available because Cahill has not approved them.

According to a police report, on Oct. 2, several computer technicians reportedly found pornographic images of underage girls in the backup folder of the data drive on the man’s computer.

The girls pictured appeared to be between 8 and 12 years old and “to be actual photos that were scanned onto the computer,” according to a police report.

When police searched the man’s home, they found a flash drive that had several pictures of young girls under 18 years old, a paper titled, “How to hide porn on your computer” and another showing how to find images of young girls.

The man told Payson Police Detective Matt Van Camp that he had nothing to do with the images and that they appeared because of a virus.